Ofsted Piccadilly Gate Store Street Manchester T 0300 123 1231

www.gov.uk/ofsted

M1 2WD

22 October 2020

Damian Kenny Headteacher Blacklow Brow Primary School Tarbock Road L36 5XW

Dear Mr Kenny

Ofsted visit to Blacklow Brow Primary School

Following my visit with Jo Olsson, Her Majesty's Inspector (HMI), to your school on 29 September 2020, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to confirm the visit’s findings. Thank you for the time you made available to discuss your actions since September 2020, when the government expected all schools to open fully to all pupils.

This visit was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) and in accordance with Ofsted's published procedures for visiting schools while routine inspections are temporarily suspended.

Ofsted’s visits to schools during the autumn term are not inspections. We are not giving graded judgements. We did not undertake the usual range of inspection activities and were unable to check other sources of evidence, such as visits to lessons or looking at pupils’ work. The content of this letter gives an overview of our discussions about what has happened in your school this term.

During the visit, we spoke to you, the deputy headteacher and members of staff with responsibilities for attendance, behaviour and safeguarding. We did not speak to pupils because of the protective measures in place.

Context

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how ’s education system is managing the return to full

education for pupils, following an extended break in formal schooling due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

In undertaking this focused work, HMI are visiting a broad range of schools. HMI will visit a sample of:

◼ approximately 1,200 schools across all Ofsted grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate) ◼ maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision, including those in cities, and coastal, town or rural communities.

The information from this visit will feed into Ofsted’s national reporting so that the insights can be shared with the government and the education sector. We did not find any significant concerns during the visit. In such a case, an inspection report would be published on our website and available to parents and carers.

We did not consider your response to COVID-19 during the spring and summer terms 2020, when the school was not open to all pupils.

From this visit, inspectors noted that:

◼ The school opened for pupils in Years 3 to 6 on 3 September 2020. Pupils in Year 1 and Year 2 returned on 4 September 2020. Children in the early years followed a phased start to school. ◼ Attendance is above the normal attendance for the school at this time of year. At the time of this visit, the Year 5 class were isolating. ◼ Pupils are not studying their usual curriculum. You have introduced a temporary recovery curriculum for all subjects. You have amended the order in which some content is taught. You plan to return to the school’s normal curriculum by November 2020. ◼ Teachers have assessed what pupils know in mathematics. Pupils have not remembered all their learning of mathematical calculations, such as multiplication tables. You have changed pupils’ mathematics lessons to help them to practise and develop this knowledge. ◼ Teachers have assessed pupils’ knowledge in reading. You are prioritising the teaching of phonics in the Reception class and Years 1 and 2. You have planned opportunities for pupils in Years 3 to 6 to practise their reading comprehension skills in other subjects. ◼ Pupils study the full range of other subjects in the wider curriculum. You and your teachers have plans in place to check what pupils remember in subjects other than English and mathematics by the end of October 2020.

2

◼ You have systems in place to allow staff to deliver the recovery curriculum remotely. This involves the use of paper-based and online learning. Teachers and pupils have had training to help them access remote learning safely.

Thank you again for contributing to this important national work. The views and experiences you have shared will help to inform future policy.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees and the chief executive officer or equivalent of the multi-academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Knowsley. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely

John Nixon Her Majesty's Inspector

3